EV Batteries: Solid Concept, but Not Ready for Prime Time

Despite a spate of recent setbacks, plug-in hybrids are here to stay, and consumers and automakers need to be patient as the technology struggles toward competitiveness.

That's what experts are saying in the wake of three difficult months in which the reputation of electrified vehicles was marred by a fire and a temporary manufacturing shutdown for the Chevy Volt, as well as high-profile problems for startup manufacturers Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive.

"Every major car company in the world is developing plug-in technology right now because it has great promise," David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, told Design News. "The fundamental concept is a solid one. It's just not ready for prime time yet."

The Prius PHV looks like a conventional Prius, except for the charge port near the left front wheel.

Cole and other experts interviewed by Design News over the past two months have blamed the recent unfavorable impressions on an overzealous consumer market that wants electric vehicles to succeed today. As a result, low sales of Chevy Volts and Nissan Leafs have clashed with high expectations, as have other public problems, such as the Volt's fire, Tesla's $40,000 replacement battery, and Fisker's fiasco at the Consumer Reports facility.

"For any new technology, there will be occasions where you have to learn from mistakes," noted Hrishikesh Sathawane, an analyst of EVs and energy storage for Lux Research. "This happens all the time."

Cole argues that the auto industry knew that EVs and plug-in hybrids would have a slow uptake, but says that many executives were swept up in an electric vehicle euphoria that wasn't grounded in reality. "Any way you look at it, the technology was really too expensive," Cole told us. "The people involved knew this. But when the $7,500 federal tax credit arrived, everything started to change."

Yes TJ. It's likely a friend of mine you are talking about leading the Li battery charge there. He was so fed up with bad, high priced battery suppliers he built his own factory there. It took him a yr to learn and another to build a producton line/factory.

DN, Charles seems to seek out those with the highest price quotes they can find yet I buy Li batteries RETAIL for $250/kwhr for same small Panasonic cells Tesla uses and $450kwhr for bigger ones by multiple others. So much for $400 in 2020.

EV's are expensive because they make them that way. My EV 2seat sportwagon using lead batteries get 100+ mile range and do 100mph though not at the same time, and could be made profitably at $15k in 10 unit lots and for $10k in 10k lots.

It does it because it's light, aero which cuts the price by 50%. For another $5k it can be lithium and about 125 mile range. It's the same materials and labor as 3 golf carts gives a idea.

I like alum/air batteries where you get 1000+ miles and change out the battery when it gets low and the tech is already done, here. Getting Alum to play nicely in a rechargable one, like with Zinc and silver, are great but few cycles. They grow dendrites? that short out the plates is the big problem. Let's hope but plan on what we have.

Beth, you are right on there. These vehicles are following the standard new technology adoption curve. The first purchasers were the early adopters. Now that the technology is going more mainstream, at least in expectations, a whole different type of person is looking at them. They have different expectations and the manufacturers need to take those into account. In some places that is called jumping the chasm.

Jon, who knows. There are lots of things in the lab that don't work in application. Argonne National Labs is near me and so I talk to neighbors that work there on a number of energy technologies. One was working in fuel cells a few years back. That is another one I have heard about again recently. No EV power system will be as easy to use as petrol for transportation. They will all be hybrids of some type (the Leaf and the Tesla are the only pure EVs I know of). I prefer the Volt approach. IN the long run it will be more reliable, I would think.

As with any innovation of the size and scope of EV technology, patience and time is what it's all about. There's no doubt that EV technology in some shape and form will eventually take root, but just because these first real generations aren't flying out of the show rooms doesn't mean that over time, with engineering refinements and an eye to cost reduction, they won't.

Lithium-ion battery prices will drop rapidly over the next 10 years, setting the stage for plug-in vehicles to reach 5%-10% of total automotive sales by the mid- to late-2020s, according to a new study.

Advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) are poised to become a $102 billion market by 2030, but just a sliver of that technology will be applied to cars that can be fully autonomous in all conditions, according to a new study.

Using a headset and a giant ultra-high definition display, Ford Motor Co. last week provided a glimpse of how virtual reality enabled its engineers to collaborate across continents on the design of its new GT supercar.

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